Pittsburgh Machinists Overcome Union Officials’ Attempts to Block Vote and Eject Unwanted Union
Pittsburgh, PA (March 12, 2009) – With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, Pittsburgh Precision Turned Products employees recently overcame frivolous union boss blocking charges to eject the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 623 union.
In November 2009, Kathleen Lobodinsky, an employee at Precision Turned Products, solicited signatures from coworkers to hold an election to eject Local 623 from their workplace. Instead of defending their presence to employees, union officials responded by filing spurious blocking charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that company officials unlawfully assisted Lobodinsky’s efforts to collect employee signatures.
Although Right to Work attorneys helped Lobodinsky assemble evidence to prove she had acted without employer support, union officials withdrew their allegations before the NLRB could dismiss the case. Lobodinsky went on to collect enough signatures to trigger a union decertification election, which took place on February 24, 2010. After supervising the election, the NLRB reported that Precision Turned Products employees voted against the union.
On March 11, the NLRB issued a final certification order, confirming that the union is no longer the monopoly bargaining agent for Pittsburgh Precision Turned Products.
Workers typically face serious obstacles to ejecting an unwanted union. Decertification elections can only take place towards the end of a union’s contract, which can last up to three years, and employees must collect signatures from over one third of the bargaining unit to trigger a vote on the union’s presence. Moreover, union lawyers often resort to spurious legal tactics to delay voting or to deter employees from going through with a decertification election.
Despite these obstacles, Lobodinsky and her coworkers successfully removed Local 623 from their workplace. As a result, Precision Turned Products employees are no longer forced to accept union “representation” and can now bargain individually with the company over terms and conditions of their employment.
“Instead of defending their presence in the workplace, union bosses often resort to frivolous legal schemes to stop employees from voting out an unwanted union,” said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Fortunately, Kathleen Lobodinsky and her coworkers weren’t intimidated by the union’s legal maneuverings and prevailed in their efforts to eject unwanted United Electrical bosses from their workplace.”
Young Workers Flee Forced Unionism States Seeking Jobs, Freedom
The pro-worker freedom think tank National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR) just published a study noting that forced unionism hurts young workers the most and because of that, they are leaving forced unionism states for Right to Work states in droves:
Though they are located variously in the New England, Middle Atlantic, South Atlantic, and East North Central regions of the U.S., all 13 states enduring the worst losses [of young workers] all have one important public policy in common: Not one has a Right to Work law that prohibits making forced union dues or fees a condition of employment. In contrast, all six of the states outside the West with young-adult population gains of more than 10.0% are Right to Work states.
The study also notes that states with Right to Work protections for its workers are weathering these tough economic conditions significantly better than their forced unionism counterparts and previous studies have shown that workers who flee forced unionism benefit financially more than their counterparts who moved from a pro-worker freedom state into a forced unionism state. NILRR’s most recent study suggests that the further expansion of Big Labor’s government-granted forced dues privileges such as those in the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill would not only hurt all of America’s workers but also hit young workers the hardest.
Of course, economic benefits alone do not account for the trend of young workers’ moving patterns. It is easy to surmise that young folks — a notoriously independently-minded group — are seeking to pursue their version of the American Dream without being dictated by power hungry union bosses’ demands and allow them to keep their own hard-earned money if they find union dues payment to be objectionable or even just undesirable.
Irony: Obama Names Andy Stern to Deficit Panel
If the goal of Obama’s Deficit Panel is to increase government budget deficits then naming SEIU top boss Andy Stern makes perfect sense. But since the supposed goal is to reduce the record budget shortfalls, Stern’s nomination is a real head-scratcher.
As many union members know, the self-interest of union bosses to corral more workers into dues-paying ranks often has severe costs. And now that more than half of our nation’s government workers are now under union boss monopoly bargaining control, it’s becoming abundantly clear that one of these costs is the growth of government to fiscally unsustainable levels.
It’s no wonder mayors from across the country are standing up to oppose the Police & Firefighters Monopoly Bargaining Bill, currently pending in Congress, which would force first responders into forced-dues-paying ranks by federal fiat. As Charleston, WV, mayor Danny Jones told the Charleston Daily Mail,
If you look around the states, the most unionized states are the ones that are the most broke.
So while SEIU boss Andy Stern continues his using his frequent White House visits to push for a new federal policy that could add $100 billion a year to the federal budget (while forcing employees of federal contractors into union coffers) and the costs of Big Labor’s public sector growth become more clear, concerned citizens can only wonder what kind of recommendations Andy Stern will make on President Obama’s deficit panel.
Right to Work on the Radio: Opposing the Forced Unionization of Michigan Homecare Workers
Right to Work President Mark Mix sat down with the Lucy Ann Lance Business Insider to discuss Big Labor’s attempt to force Michigan homecare workers into union collectives. Click here to listen or use the embedded player below:
Worker Advocate Demands Federal Disclosure on Controversial Transportation Union Rule Change
Worker Advocate Demands Federal Disclosure on Controversial Transportation Union Rule Change
Former airline union officials should not use federal power to help their
unions corral tens of thousands of workers into union membership
Washington, DC (March 5, 2010) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Mediation Board (NMB) seeking records of any communication between two of its three members – both former union officials – and any union official or lobbyist concerning a dramatic rule change proposal on how a union is imposed on non-union railway and airline industry workers.
The NMB, the federal agency tasked with mediating labor disputes within the railroad and airline industries, is poised to roll back 75 years of precedent and change labor union organizing regulations, greasing the skids for union organizers to lock industry workers into union ranks. The new procedure would stack the deck in favor of unionization by granting a union monopoly bargaining power over workers if the union “wins” an election, no matter how few eligible workers actually participate in the vote. In fact, this means that a small bloc of workers could force union boss “representation” on the whole group as opposed to a true majority of all workers deciding for themselves.
Worker Advocate Demands Federal Disclosure on Controversial Transportation Union Rule Change
Washington, DC (March 5, 2010) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Mediation Board (NMB) seeking records of any communication between two of its three members – both former union officials – and any union official or lobbyist concerning a dramatic rule change proposal on how a union is imposed on non-union railway and airline industry workers.
The NMB, the federal agency tasked with mediating labor disputes within the railroad and airline industries, is poised to roll back 75 years of precedent and change labor union organizing regulations, greasing the skids for union organizers to lock industry workers into union ranks. The new procedure would stack the deck in favor of unionization by granting a union monopoly bargaining power over workers if the union “wins” an election, no matter how few eligible workers actually participate in the vote. In fact, this means that a small bloc of workers could force union boss “representation” on the whole group as opposed to a true majority of all workers deciding for themselves.
Harry Hoglander and Linda Puchala are former union officials with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) unions, respectively. Both unions are a major part of an American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) union-led coalition urging the NMB to discard its longstanding policy. President Barack Obama’s appointment of Puchala in 2009 solidified a pro-forced unionism majority on the NMB.
The members voted 2-1 to preliminarily support the controversial change, and NMB Chair Elizabeth Dougherty has criticized the hasty actions of the two members.
In January, Foundation attorneys filed comments and testified with the NMB opposing the rule change and filed a motion seeking the recusal of Hoglander and Puchala as a conflict of interest.
“President Obama repeatedly promised a new era of openness, transparency, and ethics but has repeatedly violated that pledge when it comes to paying off Organized Labor bosses,” said Patrick Semmens, legal information director of the National Right to Work Foundation. “National Mediation Board members should comply with the letter and spirit of that policy by not making rulings that so directly benefit their recent associates, ALPA and AFA union officials, in their quest to force more workers into union ranks.”
The FOIA request seeks correspondence, transcripts or notes of meetings, reports or handouts, proposals, speeches, phone logs, or other writings or recordings between Hoglander or Puchala and union officials concerning the proposed change.
Obama’s Labor Department Is Serious About Ethics… Except When It Isn’t
Over at BigGovernment.com, Don Loos of National Right to Work examines the abysmal record of the Obama Department of Labor when it comes to enforcing the Administration’s ethics policy against union officials:
On January 8th, BigGovernment.com posted a blog that began, “Outrageously, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis and other DOL Obama appointees appear to have blatantly disregarded the President’s Executive Order #13490 – the Ethics Pledge.”
Somebody at the U.S. Department of Labor must be reading BigGovernment.com because just 11 days after the posting, the DOL ethics officer wrote a letter to The National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix and provided copies of signed “EO 13490 ethics pledges.” (See related Foundation ongoing lawsuit against DOL for DOL’s failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.) Each of these newly provided pledges matched the ethics order language (more on this in another post) unlike the self-administered waivers included in the publicly distributed pledges provided to ProPublica.org and referenced in the earlier blog.
In addition, the DOL ethics officer asserted that 51 people at the DOL have signed the ethics pledge and there has been only one (1) ethics waiver issued by DOL and that was for Naomi Walker. Her Job: Big Labor Liaison (an Associate Deputy Secretary position). Her past experience includes a stint as an AFL-CIO lobbyist among others. Walker’s ethics waiver is the subject of this blog.
Walker’s ethics waiver and its accompanying explanatory memo was approved “after consultation with the Counsel to the President” expose The President’s Ethics Executive Order for the joke that it is.
The ethics officer provides a four-page memo (probably written in a large part by the Counsel to the President) to justify the reasons that Walker must be provided an ethics waiver of Obama’s ethics executive order. My summary of the memo follows:
The Counsel to President Obama and the Department of Labor reached the conclusion that it would be impossible for Walker not to violate the Ethics Order because of her previous positions with the AFL-CIO; therefore, she must be granted an ethics waiver so that she can do the job for which she was appointed.
Wasn’t the reason for the ethics pledge to prevent appointing someone to a position where their previous employer could greatly benefit with them as a government insider?
[…]
Continue reading the post here.
Right to Work Foundation Announces New Addition to Legal Team
Right to Work Foundation Announces New Addition to Legal Team
Wake Forest-trained attorney dedicated to the cause of individual liberty
Washington, DC (February 26, 2010) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced today that it has hired Erin Elizabeth Smith of Georgetown, Texas, as an addition to its legal staff.
Smith is a recently sworn in member of the North Carolina State Bar and 2009 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, NC.
“Erin Smith brings to the Foundation a real commitment to defending and advancing individual liberty against the looming threat of compulsory unionism,” said Ray LaJeunesse, vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Foundation.
“She will assist the Foundation’s burgeoning, cutting-edge legal strategies to blunt Big Labor’s well-funded, politically-connected attack on individual worker rights – including its coercive ‘card check’ forced union organizing and misuse of compulsory dues for politics.”
Right to Work Foundation Announces New Addition to Legal Team
Washington, DC (February 26, 2010) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced today that it has hired Erin Elizabeth Smith of Georgetown, Texas, as an addition to its legal staff.
Smith is a recently sworn in member of the North Carolina State Bar and 2009 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, NC.
“Erin Smith brings to the Foundation a real commitment to defending and advancing individual liberty against the looming threat of compulsory unionism,” said Ray LaJeunesse, vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Foundation.
“She will assist the Foundation’s burgeoning, cutting-edge legal strategies to blunt Big Labor’s well-funded, politically-connected attack on individual worker rights – including its coercive ‘card check’ forced union organizing and misuse of compulsory dues for politics.”
As the newest of the Foundation’s eleven staff attorneys, Smith will help build on the Foundation’s litigation record for union-abused workers that includes 14 cases at the United States Supreme Court, seven of which were won in whole or in part. Currently, National Right to Work Foundation attorneys represent thousands of employees in over 200 active cases nationwide.
Before joining the Foundation, Smith served as an intern for both the National Labor Relations Board regional office and for a federal public defender in Winston-Salem. She also was a law clerk for Davis & Hamrick, LLP of Winston-Salem and for the Institute for Justice in Washington, DC.
Smith holds bachelors degrees in History and Political Science from Wake Forest University, where she graduated with honors. She was also a member of the legal honor society Phi Alpha Delta and an executive staff member of the Wake Forest Journal of Intellectual Property Law.
Right to Work on the Radio: Jerry Doyle Interviews Right to Work President Mark Mix
Following his CPAC panel discussion, Right to Work President Mark Mix was interviewed by Jerry Doyle on Big Labor’s political influence and the Right to Work movement. Click here to listen or use the embedded player below:
